Her Facebook posts are regularly filled with beautiful photos of her three children, loving shout-outs to her husband, Randy, and anecdotes from her days running Top Shelf Cleaning.

Mande loves and appreciates the little things about her life that she’s worked so hard to achieve.

And that’s largely because she knows all too well that the “struggle is real.”

‘I needed a way to feed my kids’

Born in Georgia and raised in South Carolina, Mande moved to Lafayette in 2007 with her ex-husband. At the time, she had a son, Houston, and was pregnant with her daughter, Mercy.

“My ex was working all around the state,” she says, “so it made sense to relocate to Lafayette. When I found out I was pregnant with Mercy, that made our decision final. I didn’t want to live like a single mom.”

A couple years after settling in Cajun Country, Mande gave birth to her third child, Iris, in 2010. She was doing some in-home child care for working mothers, and life was pretty good – but around that time, she and her husband began having problems.

“In 2013,” Mande says, “my marriage fell apart. I was a single mom and I needed to work, so I started cleaning houses. I needed a way to feed my kids.”

Being the family provider quickly became her primary focus – and somewhere along the way, she started to lose herself.

“I was a single mom, just coming out of a 10-year marriage,” Mande explains. “I pretty much lost who I was. I was known as Houston’s mom, or Mercy’s mom, or Iris’ mom … it was never, ‘Hey, that’s Mande’ anymore. I had no self-identity.”

As many single moms do, she continued to put her family first and channeled her personal feelings into growing her business.

“It started to take off,” Mande says, “because I have a heart for single moms, single parents, and just people going through stuff. People who need child care and can’t pay for it. Shortly after I started, I met a single mom who needed a job, so I brought her on. We got cards made, and we kept picking up houses. She eventually got a job and moved on – but that’s what I want to do … I want to empower other women to show them that they can make it.”

After that, Mande found someone else who needed a job, and that’s how Top Shelf Cleaning continued to progress.

“Now, we clean about 80 to 90 houses in a four-week period,” she says. “I have five single moms who work with me, and I work around their kids’ schedules. We really just try to have each other’s backs.”

Mande explains that she has a heart to help people.

“It’s just how I’m built,” she explains. “One of my love languages is to give service back because I know how it feels to be on the other end.”

Cleaning from a mom’s perspective

In addition to empowering women, Mande prides herself on cleaning houses from a mother’s perspective.

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The mission of Top Shelf Cleaning is to help single moms regain confidence/get back on their feet.(Photo: Layni Menard/Special to The Advertiser)

“I think with us, as moms, we can just look at the walls for fingerprints, the areas around the light switches, the dirtiest parts of the house that nobody really thinks to wipe,” she explains. “One of my girls said to me, ‘I see cleaning in a whole new night now.’ We clean from the ceiling to the floor. Sometimes, we have three or four girls cleaning for four or five hours. I’m very particular – it’s not the typical ‘go in and sweep the floors and wipe the countertops.’ People are literally getting top shelf cleaning when we come in - hence the name.”

Mande says the most rewarding part of her job is when clients can see the end result.

“It’s very rewarding,” she says. “When someone tells me, ‘y’all did an amazing job … especially people, like teachers, who don’t have the time to clean all the small things in their house.”

But with all rewards come risks.

“The hardest part about owning this business was finding people who would really work,” Mande explains. “You gotta find good employees who are honest, hardworking and reliable. Without my girls, my business wouldn’t be nothing – I am lucky to have every single one of them.”

Finding love with a ‘good old country boy’

In the midst of building a business and being a mom, Mande was also blessed to find personal happiness – and she wasn’t even looking for it.

Mande and her husband, Randy.(Photo: FILE PHOTO)

“I met my husband Randy at Gloria’s in Lafayette,” she says. “I was a single mom, so I kept my kids away from the dating scene. I figured it would happen when it happens, and it did. I knew him about a year before we started dating, but I really didn’t pay him no attention. What drew me to him is he’s just a good old country boy. He’s rough around the edges, but he’s real. In my vows, I quoted, ‘he’s not flawless, but he’s my kind of perfect. He’s respectful of women, and he’s lovingly supported me in my business and my growth.”

Years after hitting some serious lows in her life, Mande has seemed to find her “new normal” – and she’s learning more every day.

“I want to leave my kids a legacy, not debt,” she explains. “Many middle-class families these days, they leave debt, and I don’t want that for my kids. I may have been a single mom, but I provided and I helped other moms provide. I’m not stopping at my business. The sky is the limit.”